Reading modern British literature. Part 2. Учебное пособие
.pdf1)to guess in the dark (p.195);
2)lunch is on the firm (p.199);
3)to bite the bullet (p.204);
4)to rue the day when … (p.206);
5)tit for tat (p.206);
6)a flea in one’s ear (p.209);
7)to twist in the wind (p.211);
8)stuck in old grooves (p.211);
9)mumbo-jumbo (p.212);
10)a Doppelganger (p.216);
11)couldn’t give a monkey’s (p.217);
12)at the drop of a hat (p.218);
13)devil’s advocate (p.218);
14)face value (p.221);
15)past one’s prime (p.231);
16)to get off on the wrong foot (p.233);
17)to give a second’s thought to … (p.234);
18)olive oil doesn’t agree with me (p.236);
19)traffic bollards (p.238);
20)to box ears (p.244);
21)a pain in the neck (p.247);
22)be a sport (p.252);
23)small hours (p.255);
Focus on culture
1.What does Radio Three (p.198) broadcast?
2.What is meant by “a hefty golden handshake” (p.212)? When is it given to businessmen?
91
3.What is special about a “post office account” (p.234)? Who usually uses it? How is it different from a bank account?
4.Explain the term “Yobbish tendency” (p.244). What kind of behavior
is presupposed?
5.Imagine a person is sent “a kissogram” or “a gorillagram” (p.253). What happens in these circumstances? What is a proper occasion to send them?
6.What kind of food does “Ploughman’s lunch” (p.255) consist of?
Focus on style
1.What does Robyn allude to reflecting on her behavior: “there had been, she privately acknowledged, something slightly Quixotic about it” (p.192). Why does she make such a reference?
2.What expressive stylistic means are employed in the description of Brian Everthorpe: “swaggering in from the car park, huffing and puffing and rubbing his pink hands together” (p.192). What is your image of this character?
3.Study the description of Norman Cole: “Cole was a portly, baldheaded man who blinked a great deal behind his glasses, and smoked a pipe - or rather he poked, scraped, blew into, sucked on and frequently applied burning matches to a pipe. Not much smoke was produced by all this activity. He exuded instead a rather false air of bonhomie. `Ha, ha!' he exclaimed, when Wilcox
explained Robyn's presence. `I'll believe you, Vic. Thousands wouldn't” (p.194).
Provide the stylistic analysis of the passage.
4.Identify the stylistic device that might be observed in Vic’s
description: “he gave a dry bark of a laugh” (p.197).
5.Read the weather description and analyze it from the point of stylistics: “Outside, the frostbound fields and skeletal trees cowered under a steely shield of cloud” (p.198).
6.Comment upon the stylistic effect and value of Robyn’s speech while
she was making an order: “I'll have a half of luscious avocado pear with tangy
92
French dressing to start, and then I'll have golden-fried ocean-fresh scampi and a crisp farm-house side salad. Oh, and a home-baked wholemeal roll coated with tasty sesame seeds” (p.199).
7.What and who does Robyn allude to saying: “Oh look, that’s the way to Haworth!” (p.202).
8.Comment on the stylistic effect achieved in the following sentence:
“Tit for tat, only our tit will be a lot more than his tat. He won't know what hit him” (206). What are the means employed?
9.Reread the passage showing Vic’s opinion on how business is being
done: “I always say it's like a relay race. First you're ahead, then you drop the baton and someone else takes the lead, then you catch up again. But there's no finishing line. The race never ends” (p.206). Provide the analysis of the given passage.
10.Whose idea does Vic follow talking to Brian Everthorpe: “We'd make
ourselves look weak, fighting with Foundrax for the Rawlinson account. Like little dogs squabbling over a bone. Not much meat on the Rawlinson bone, when you work it out. Let Norman Cole have it. Let him choke on it” (p.211). Comment upon the stylistic value of the passage.
11.Comment upon the stylistic value of the passage describing Robyn’s
routine: “The steady grind of intellectual work, punctuated by brief explosions of indoor physical exercise - that was the rhythm of Robyn's first winter at Rummidge” (p.215).
12.Can you observe any variation in Robyn’s speech assuming that her
personality has undergone certain changes during her shadow-experience?
13.Identify the stylistic means employed in the following passage:
“Thanks to Robyn, the meal was not the social minefield he had feared” (236).
14.Comment upon Vic’s words: “They [family] think it [money] comes
out of the bank like water out of a tap - or it could if mean old Dad didn't keep his
thumb over the spout” (p.239) from the point of stylistics.
93
15. Consider the stylistic value of the following passages: “She felt a sudden pang of appetite for travel, the bustle of airports, the novelty of foreign tongues and foreign manners, clanging tramcars and pavement cafes” (p.258);
“Robyn had made up her mind. Mentally she registered her regret, sealed her decision, and filed it away, with a memo to phone Vic Wilcox the next day” (p.258).
16. Study the epigraph to the part (p.189), identify its source and report how it reflects the contents of the book.
Post-reading activities
1.Comment on the following words.
1)“Big multinational corporations rule the world”.
2)“There must, she reflected, be millions of literate, intelligent people
like Victor Wilcox walking about England who had never read Jane Eyre or
Wuthering Heights, though it was difficult to imagine such a state of cultural deprivation. What difference did it make, never to have shivered with Jane Eyre at Lowood school, or throbbed in the arms of Heathcliff with Cathy? Then it occurred to Robyn that this was a suspiciously humanist train of thought and that the very word was an instrument of bourgeois hegemony”.
3)“We live in a de-centred universe”.
4)“Signs are never innocent”.
5)“Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age”.
6)“We live in the age of the yob. Whatever they don't understand, whatever isn't protected, the yobs will smash, and spoil it for everybody else”.
7)“Something's happened to this country. I don't know why, or exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the line a lot of basic decencies disappeared, like respect for other people's property, respect for the old, respect for women –”.
94
Part 5
Pp.265-318
Pre-reading tasks
1.Consult the dictionary to check up the correct pronunciation of the following proper names that you are going to come across while reading: Zurich, Brussels, Milan, Frankfurt.
2.In this part Vic utters the following phrase: “We pretty well flattened Frankfurt” (p.273). Explain his idea.
3.Beware of the fact that Chapter 2 of the given part is utterly physical and explicit. So you may feel free to skip it as well the passage on pages 296-297.
Focus on the contents
1. Answer the following questions.
1)What is the main characters’ influence on each other’s life and
thinking?
2)Compare Rummidge and Frankfurt. Consider the grounds for so much
difference.
3)Compare the main characters’ attitude to love and marriage. Justify
their way of thinking.
4)Do the main characters have anything in common? What?
5)What is your image of Robyn’s parents?
6)Study Charles’s letter; what made him change his career?
7)Characterize Vic’s behavior after their trip to Frankfurt. What is his wife’s reaction to his “eccentricities”?
Focus on vocabulary
1. Glossary. Note down the words and word combinations, memorize
them.
95
Nouns: alibi (267), a penchant for … (267), stainless steel (267), a databoard (267), a fag (268), pap (268), a mosaic (269), a wire (269), commotion (269), rigmarole (270), customs (271), marble (272), a recession (274), stench (275), refreshment (275), bubbly (275), disguise (276), a flute (276), venison (277), cognac (277), a cloakroom (277), trunks (281), a garment (281), breaststroke (282), a whirlpool (282), a locker-room (283), an ablution (283), snooker (283), a cue (283), a treadmill (283), sweat (283), a halo (284), cutlery (285), clientele (286), awe (287), a refrain (288), a mite (294), a hunch (299), a distraction (305), adolescence (305), graffiti (306), a riot (309), an outrage (309), a vantage-point (311), a tenure (312), securities (313), a stake (313), reverie (316), a wench (317).
Verbs: to conceal (267), to tote (268), to relish (268), to occur (269), to set off (269), to intercept (270), to murmur (271), to polish (273), to simper (275), to adjourn (276), to substitute (277), to indulge (277), to loiter (277), to haggle (278), to somersault (282), to acquiesce (285), to commence (287), to hum (288), to yield (288), to chuckle (296), to falter (300), to brood (300), to entice (304), to sojourn (308), to hanker for (309), to pursue (313), to feign (316).
Adjectives: appalled (268), oblivious (269), tailored (270), terrific (270), pricey (272), exiguous (272), diverse (273), discarded (273), sleek (273), tedious (276), adjacent (277), cunning (278), weary (280), cheeky (280), shallow (282), blissful (282), heady (283), fluffy (283), damp (284), velvet (285), exhilarating (285), sinewy (286), frenzied (286), rigid (287), smoochy (288), perverted (294), decent (295), sly (295), queasy (298), maudlin (299), wretched (300), tricky (300), ghastly (302), venerable (305), brand-new (306), well-heeled (307), muted (309), soiled (309), buoyant (309), bulky (310), feeble (310), subject to… (315), pent-up (317), trashy (318).
Adverbs: nonchalantly (268), accommodatingly (268), approvingly (272), despondently (277), clumsily (279), ramblingly (285), intently (286), mischievously (286), awkwardly (287), hoarsely (288), curtly (294),
96
selfconsciously (295), contritely (304), serenely (305), suavely (306), reminiscently (307), plaintively (307), fancifully (312), ultimately (313).
Phrases: with wounded pride (267), susceptibility to champagne (267), to sneak a look at … (268), to stifle a yawn (270), to stare in wonderment (271), struck by a thought (271), from scratch (273), with a shrug (279), to give a vacant smile (279), the deal is sewn up (279), to slip out of one’s grasp (279), a lobe of the brain (283), at arm’s length (287), by the by (301), pros and cons (303), on the contrary (306), needless to say (307), without premeditation (308), there and then (310), by no means (312), scant chances (312), a lump sum (314), unrequited love (315), wide awake (316), to catch a bug (316), on song (314), the game is not worth the candle (317), take my word for it (317).
2.Transcribe the following words: Alibi, a penchant, cognac, clientele, awe, adolescence, graffiti, tenure, to occur, to acquiesce, exiguous, tedious, weary, exhilarating, sinewy, buoyant, nonchalantly, mischievously, suavely, wounded, unrequited.
3.Guess the word by its definition:
1)a hard smooth stone used for building and making statues;
2)to stop, catch, or take control of someone or something before they can get to the place they are going to;
3)a type of French sparkling wine that people often drink to celebrate special occasions (informal);
4)too big to be carried or stored easily;
5)a circle of light around the head of a holy person in religious paintings;
6)to perform a movement in which you form your body into a ball and roll forwards or backwards on the ground or in the air;
7)a tall narrow glass, especially one for drinking champagne;
8)done in a manner that shows one is very sorry or ashamed because you have done something bad;
97
9)a style of swimming in which you pull both arms back at the same time and kick both legs with your knees bent;
10)morally wrong; relating to sexual behaviour that you consider to be not
normal;
11)a room with lockers in a large building such as a factory or sports hall.
4.Define the following words: stainless steel, to haggle, brand-new, ultimately, venison, pent-up, a treadmill, to chuckle, fluffy, to feign.
5.Provide the context for the adverbs from the glossary list.
6.Use the phrases from the glossary list in the sentences of your own.
7.Study the context and extra sources to explain the meaning of the following expressions:
1)to dress the part (p.270);
2)no dice (p.278);
3)now you are talking (p.278);
4)it’s a snip (p.281);
5)made a hash of that (p.282),
6)high as a kite (p.285);
7)incommunicado (p.309);
8)a kindred spirit (p.309);
9)Zeitgeist (p.311);
10)the sky is the limit (p.311);
11)to make ends meet (p.311);
12)lip-service (p.311);
13)the big wheel (p.312);
Focus on culture
1. What kind of educational institution is Open University summer school (p.295)?
98
2.What is meant by the phrase “to take a year off” (p.303)? Who follows this practice?
3.Decipher the abbreviation “BUPA” (p.311); comment upon the company’s profile.
Focus on style
1.Note the narrative techniques employed in this part. How is it different from the other ones? What function does this method perform?
2.Why is the French word “affaire” used in the text (p.267)? Comment upon its semantic and stylistic features. Note down other words of foreign origin, study their semantic peculiarities.
3.Identify the stylistic device in the following passage: “They'd rather
make a fast buck in foreign markets than invest in British companies” (p.268).
4.Reread the passage on pages 269-270 starting with “Sunlight flooded the cabin…” up to its end. Whose thoughts are presented in this fragment? Who has taken the part of the narrator? What makes you think so?
5.Analyze the following passage from the point of narrative technique and the choice of words: “She was his girlfriend, his mistress, his dolly-bird, his bit of spare, his nookie-cookie, thinly disguised as his secretary or PA, going with him to Frankfurt on the firm's expenses, nice work if you could fiddle it, lucky bastard”
(p.270).
6.Comment upon the stylistic value of the following passage: “The
pavements had a freshly rinsed look, and so had the pedestrians” (p.273).
7.Analyze the following passage from the point of stylistics: “Wheels
turned, crankshafts cranked, oiled pistons slid up and down, in and out, conveyor belts rattled round, but nothing was actually produced” (p.275).
8. What is the exhibition hall compared to? What is the basis for such a comparison?
99
9.Explain what is meant by the following allusion: “They sat in it up to their necks, facing each other like cartoon characters in a cannibal's pot” (p.282).
10.Analyze the following passage, reflect on its stylistic value: “… the
Earth would look no bigger or more substantial than a milky-coloured balloon. There was no gravity here, and one breathed champagne bubbles” (p.285).
11. Comment upon the effect created in the following passage and the idea that lies behind it: “… like the face of a prisoner who comes to the door of his cell and grips the bars, only to discover that it is unlocked, and does not know whether the prospect of release is genuine or not” (p.286).
12. Focus on the following passage, identify the narrative technique and the stylistic means: “You're playing with people's lives as if they're things to be bought and sold and given away, she said. You're offering me Danny Ram's job as a sop, as a bribe, as a present, like other men give their mistresses strings of pearls” (p.301).
13.Comment on the passage from Charles’s letter from the point of
stylistics: “I've been left behind by the tide of history, stranded on the mudflats of an obsolete ideology” (p.311).
14. Study the epigraph to the part (p.265), identify its source and report how it reflects the contents of the book.
Post-reading activities
1.Comment on the following words:
14)“Difficulty generates meaning. It makes the reader work harder”.
15)“Would we all be better off boiling our water in a pot hung over an open fire? Or was it the facility to do such things at the touch of a button that freed men, and more particularly women, from servile labour and made it possible for
them to become literary critics?”
16)“We won the war and lost the peace”.
17)“Money is a great leveler, upwards”.
100